A WOMAN who suffered from bulimia for 30 years has finally beaten her illness to become a championship bodybuilder.

A WOMAN who suffered from bulimia for 30 years has finally beaten her illness to become a championship bodybuilder.

Debbie Francis spent a lifetime hating the way she looked and suffering from low self-esteem but now she looks in the mirror and is proud of what she sees.

The 42-year-old has gone from throwing up after meals and fretting about everything she eats to tucking into six meals a day to maintain her award-winning body.

Mrs Francis, whose tanned and toned body now weighs in at a healthy 8st 10lbs, has just triumphed at the Welsh Bodybuilding Championships, coming top for beauty, tone and leanness.

The mother-of-one from Pebmarsh, near Halstead, said: “I moaned all my life about not liking how I looked. Now for the first time I'm proud of my body.”

Mrs Francis, who has an eight-year-old daughter Naomi, said she struggled with poor body image since moving to England from Australia when she was about eight.

She said that after going to secondary school there was so much emphasis on how the girls looked and after a relative with anorexia came to stay it planted the seeds in her head.

But the 5ft 6ins divorcee said the bulimia was at its worse during her 20s when she was in debt and went into a downward spiral and her weight would yo-yo up and down.

However, three years ago her life turned around when she met trainer Tim Sharp, who she credits with changing her attitude.

She said: “His techniques have helped me through 30 years of bulimia and I'm happy to say I'm cured and those days are put behind me.

“I put on weight and returned my body to full health - now I'm a champion athlete.

“My eight-year-old daughter Naomi is proud of me too and at least now I can be a healthy role model.”